Samantha Shannon’s international bestseller The Bone Season will be adapted into a "major" TV series by producer Harriet Hammond of Lunar Park.

The first series will be comprised of eight episodes, with further series to follow. The deal for television rights was brokered by Kirsty McLachlan here at DGA.

The Bone Season is the first in a seven-book series which was snapped up in a six-figure deal and published in 2013. It imagines a dystopian future where clairvoyance is a crime, forcing 19-year-old dreamwalker Paige Mahoney into a double life, using her skills in the criminal underworld but all the while concealing her talents if she wants to survive.

Lunar Park is the new venture from Hammond and Daz Spencer Lovesey of Bad Penny Productions, who have produced a number of films - most recently Michael Morpurgo’s Waiting for Anya (Egmont) starring Anjelica Huston. Lunar Park will focus on original high-quality drama aimed at the direct to television and streaming video on demand markets, Hammond said.

Shannon said: "TV has come such a long way in recent years and offers rich opportunities for a long series like this one — there’s so much room for character development and expansion on the source material. It’s also very exciting to be able to re-approach the novels as a screenwriter. Once a book is out in the world, it’s essentially set in stone, but adapting The Bone Season for TV will allow me to explore the world of Scion in even more depth and consider the story from new angles. I’m looking forward to the journey.”

Hammond said: “We feel privileged that Samantha has given us this opportunity, and are delighted that she will be working closely with us to adapt her novel. The rich quality of The Bone Season makes it perfectly suited for a series adaptation – we want plenty of time to really get to know Paige and her world.”

The Bone Season has been translated into 26 languages. Get hold of a copy here.

Praise for The Bone Season

“A new breed of women authors are claiming fantasy for their own. Leading the charge is Samantha Shannon” – Harper's Bazaar

“A dark and exquisitely rendered fantasy unlike anything out there. The Bone Season isa must read” – Kami Garcia, No. 1 New York Times bestselling co-author of the Beautiful Creatures series

“Samantha Shannon has a hugely inventive talent and an imagination with seven league boots. She's hit the ground running” – Susan Hill

“The book invokes both the political tyranny of George Orwell and the bucolic mythmaking of J.R.R. Tolkein” – USA Today

“The Bone Season is more like the novel that JK Rowling and William Gibson never teamed up to write” – Wired

“The Bone Season plots out a criminal underworld in a future where clairvoyancy exists; part fantasy, part dystopia, all intrigue. It's a world of impressive scope, accompanied by Tolkienesque appendices, glossaries, maps and all” – Vogue

“A dazzlingly brainy, witty and bewitching tale of outrageous courage, heroic compassion, transcendent love and the quest for freedom ... the first in a thoughtful fantasy series by a brilliant young writer” – Booklist

“The Bone Season, set in 2059, stems from Shannon's interest in works such as The Handmaid's Tale and A Clockwork Orange, which have backdrops of repressive regimes, and in John Donne's poetry” – Sunday Times

“Shannon writes so well that you stay interested, intrigued by the knife-edge motivation of character's with “six-seater lips” whose “high-collard dresses always made her think of the gallows”. And although many of the paths walked by The Bone Season will already have been well travelled by fantasy readers, Shannon shows real skill in combining them so easily into an original and enjoyable escapist fictional world. Like so much recent young adult fiction, I suspect this series will appeal to the fearless teenager dwelling within many adults. The ending certainly gripped me to the marrow” – Daily Telegraph

“On the quite wonderful style and craft of words Samantha displays I really cannot heap enough praise – it is remarkably self-assured writing, most especially for a debut ... the most engrossing read I have had so far this year and frankly the most absorbing and compelling debut I've read since the superb Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Hugely recommended” – Forbidden Planet International Blog

“Shannon's world is meticulously detailed and has a strong internal logic ... Plenty of entertaining action ... The pace of The Bone Season seldom slacks off, and the strong and resourceful Paige is a memorable heroine. This is one buzz book that just might merit its hype” – BookPage

“The Bone Season is enough to transport even hardened sceptics of the fantasy genre into its imaginative realm” – Anita Sethi, Metro

“Frightening and well-imagined ... fascinating ... The large talent on display here suggests just how good Shannon could get in the next six books of this promising series” – Elizabeth Word Gutting, Washington Post

“Don't just suspend your disbelief – send it to the pictures and sink into this fabulous, epic fantasy thriller ... Lavish, ebullient, escapist ... Bring on the sequel” – The Times

“Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season is my perfect cup of tea ... My inner teenager enjoyed every last word” – Sarah Vine, Daily Mail Books of the Year